Issue Archive

Enhanced Project Management Tool
This invention is a system for managing a project that includes multiple tasks and workers. Periodic monthly, task plan, schedule, and budget reports are generated and made available for display or further analysis. When the system receives a description of a skill set needed for a project, the skill set module is queried. The name and relevant skill(s) possessed by each worker is displayed in a visually perceptible format.

Powder Handling Device for Analytical Instruments
This technology provides automated sample handling and movement of coarse-grained powder or other solid materials to enable analysis by a robotic or totally automated computer system. The powder is handled as a fluid, using mechanical vibrations in conjunction with a driving force, and requiring few or no moving parts.

Variable Power Handheld Laser Torch
A handheld laser torch was designed for welding and brazing metals to repair hard-to-reach space shuttle engine nozzles. It incorporates various manual controls and changing lenses to allow the operator to adjust the laser’s power output in real time. Applications are likely to be in-field welding and brazing of damaged equipment where traditional welding systems cannot easily access the welding area.

Shape Memory Alloys
Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) can be deformed at low temperature and recover their original shape upon heating. New alloys can operate up to ~300 °C, compared to ~80 °C for commercially available alloys. SMAs can be used in adaptive structures, actuators, heat detection devices, medical devices, high-temperature automotive components, aeronautics, and military.

Spring Joint Package with Overstrain Sensor
This flexible joint provides two degrees of freedom and a tremendous amount of compliance. The overstrain sensor joint has a passive and restoring force that allows the joint to return to a default position, and is also proportional to the amount of lateral deflection the spring has undergone; this allows the OS sensor joint to be used in many of the under-constrained situations that cause universal joints to lock up.

Automated Vision Test
The traditional test for visual acuity requires the patient to look and report which letters they see. A new invention provides an automated system to estimate visual acuity based on objective measurements of the eye optics and wavefront aberrations. A typical measurement consists of a list of numbers that constitute the coefficients of the polynomials. The algorithm converts the list of numbers into an estimate of the visual acuity of the patient.

Model-Based Prognostics For Batteries
Effective Battery Health Monitoring (BHM) technologies are needed to ensure that battery operation is optimal and, if not, that it stays within design limits. BHM technologies protect the asset’s batteries from degradation due to non-optimal usage, and ensure viable levels of system availability, reliability, and sustainability in the presence of degraded batteries.

Question of the Week

This week's Question: A recent study created by the Arizona-based Paragon Space Development Corporation says its life support system could help humans survive on Mars. The proposed Environmental Control and Life Support System, the company says,...